Enslaved to Sense, to Pleasure Prone

-Grace Before Meat-

Enslaved to sense, to pleasure prone,

Fond of created good;

Father, our helplessness we own,

And trembling taste our food.

Trembling, we taste: for ah! no more

To Thee the creatures lead;

Changed, they exert a fatal power,

And poison while they feed.

Cursed for the sake of wretched man,

They now engross him whole;

With pleasing force on earth detain,

And sensualise his soul.

Grov’lling on earth we still must lie

Till Christ the curse repeal;

Till Christ, descending from on high,

Infected nature heal.

Come, then, our Heavenly –Adam-, come!

Thy healing influence give;

Hallow our food, reverse our doom,

And bid us eat and live.

The bondage of corruption break!

For this our spirits groan;

Thy only will we fain would seek;

O, save us from our own.

Turn the full stream of nature’s tide:

Let all our actions tend

To Thee, their Source; Thy love the guide,

Thy glory be the end.

Earth then a scale to heaven shall be,

Sense shall point out the road;

The creatures then shall lead to Thee,

And all we taste be God!